“Military Wives” (M) *** and a half

SOME professions, for example, mining, seafaring, are by their nature high risk. But of all career risks, soldiering is the highest because it’s the only profession that involves people killing other people.

The standing army of the UK practises its trade more in foreign lands than at home. While in recent years women have served overseas, most of the battlefield work falls to men. Men being what they are, they have wives and children waiting for their return. 

Sometimes, great fears become tragic realities. Waiting for a husband whose job is war to come home safe is not a joyous experience.

When the phone rings, or there is a knock on the door, soldiers’ wives must steel themselves for the worst. While they wait, diversions are essential. 

A screenplay by Rosanne Flynn and Rachel Tunnard draws on a wide collection of real-life stories which director Peter Cattaneo has made into an emotionally powerful film telling how the wives of the troops in one British regiment created a diversion that has grown into a large charity with more than 70 choirs, chart-topping hit records, and public performances.

In 2010, Kate (Kristin Scott Thomas) is the wife of a colonel whose regiment is serving in Afghanistan and Sharon Horgan plays Lisa, a captains wife. These two women form the backbone of a plot that delivers a mixture of humour, pathos, self-discovery and ultimate success as a group of soldiers’ wives deal with daily routines and 24/7 tensions.

The plot ingredients of “Military Wives” ring true. The music grows in style, culminating in archival footage from the first choir’s actual performance in the Albert Hall before the Queen at a service commemorating the end of World War I. The gentle humour is clever. While the tensions may not be on the battlefield, they’re genuine enough. 

I found myself profoundly affected by it.

At all cinemas